Wytheville Man Charged After Dad Says He Tried To Take 4-Year-Old From Playground: Police

WYTHEVILLE, VA – A Wytheville man has been charged with felony abduction after a father told police he’d taken his 4-year-old daughter by the hand and tried to lead her away from a playground on Saturday morning.

According to the Wytheville Police Department, officers responded to an initial call around 11 a.m. on Saturday that an intoxicated man was acting aggressively on a playground at 2355 N. 4th Street. When officers arrived, they met a resident with another complaint: he told them an unknown man had approached his 4-year-old daughter on the playground, taken her by the hand, and begun walking away with her. The father had had a brief verbal and physical fight with the man, who fled.

After a search, Wytheville police arrested a man fitting the description of the suspect at a business on the 1050 block of Holston Road.

Chad Douglas Spence was arrested for public intoxication and later charged with felony abduction of a minor. He is being held at the New River Valley Regional Jail (NRVRJ) without bond.

A man with the same name and date of birth has a more than 25-year history of charges in Wythe courts for public intoxication, attempting to sell stolen property and other non-violent crimes.